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Apparatus suited for use in a space which is difficultly accessible

Apparatus suited for use in a space which is difficultly accessible description/claims

This application is a continuation-in-part application of Patent Cooperation Treaty Application Serial No. PCT/NL2007/050030, entitled “Apparatus Suited for Use in a Space Which is Difficultly Accessible”, to Technische Universiteit Delft, inventor is Paulus Breedveld, filed on Jan. 25, 2007 and the specification and claims thereof are incorporated herein by reference.

This application claims priority to and the benefit of the filing of Netherlands Patent Application Serial No. 1031031, entitled “Apparatus Suited for Use in a Space Which is Difficultly Accessible”, filed on Jan. 31, 2006, the specification and claims thereof are incorporated herein by reference.

The research culminating in the present invention was made possible by a grant from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Not Applicable.

Not Applicable.

1. Field of the Invention (Technical Field)

The invention relates to an apparatus suitable for use in a space that is not easily accessible, comprising a distally provided head, which can be equipped with an inspection organ and/or intervention organs and which is designed to be introduced into a cavitous body, a proximal control member remaining permanently outside the body, and a connecting body extending between the control member and the distal head, wherein the connecting body is designed for being at least partly introduced into the cavitous body.

2. Description of Related Art

Such an apparatus is useful for examining an industrial installation, for example, the steam pipes of a reactor. An example of such an apparatus equipped with an inspection organ is known from the international patent application PCT/NLOO/00163.

Such an apparatus is also useful, albeit in a greatly miniaturized form, as instrument for medical examination. Such an instrument is described in the international patent application PCT/NL05/000564, the contents of which are herewith considered to be included by reference.

Both the apparatus to be used in industry and the apparatus for medical application may, complementary to, or instead of the inspection organ, be equipped with an intervention organ. Where a medically applicable apparatus is concerned, such an intervention organ serves, for example, for performing a surgical operation or the very exact introduction of medication. Another example of a medical intervention organ is the generally known gripping instrument for performing a biopsy. With an industrially applied apparatus, the intervention organ may be used for repair work.

In the case of industrial inspection systems according to the prior art, the propulsion of the head of the apparatus in the cavitous body to be examined or treated is provided by electromagnetic driving means. With medical (inspection) systems, such as the usual flexible endoscopes, gastro-scopes or colonoscopes the head has to be displaced by proximally pushing the connecting body forward instead the head being provided with a drive element. A drawback of this is that the head may catch behind protuberances inside the patient, which may cause the connecting body of the scope to buckle as a result of the pushing force. This may be painful for the patient and may cause internal injury.

From the American patent specification U.S. Pat. No. 5,571,114 an apparatus according to the preamble is known, wherein the head is provided with at least one rotatable bypass organ for at least one coupling element, a first end of which, is coupled to a permanently fixed point and a second end is position-variable, and wherein the first and the second ends of the coupling element are located at the side of the control member.

In the apparatus known from the American patent specification U.S. Pat. No. 5,571,114, said coupling element is provided in the form of a chain or strip reciprocally moving at the outside of and along the connecting body that extends between head and control member, which connecting body may contain, for example, a fibre glass bank.

By driving the rotatable bypass organ located near the head of the known apparatus, the connecting body of the known apparatus that is coupled to an end of the chain or strip next to it is moved inside the body to be examined. In order to drive the bypass organ, a drive shaft extending in the longitudinal direction of the connecting body is required.

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